Dear Editor,
Proverbs 13:24 is far-reaching and the consequences for not adhering to it are enormous. As one parent told me many years ago: "I do not want my child to grow up hating me." My reaction was "Do you hate your parents?" "Does it only take good brains to become a teacher, or does discipline also count?" Do you have to discipline the children in school? She told me it seems as if I came to discipline her. That is one way. The other way is the way of the politicians who only react to "wrong-doing" when it is convenient for them. When they do that, are they not sparing the rod and as time goes by, spoiling the child(ren).
Hence the question: "What do they expect?" I was asked at one time, "Russell, why don't you go in there, you know how to let them have it" I gave him two answers. One was what my father taught me when I did not even have in mind writing to the Editor. He said and I have stated it several times before, "politics and integrity do not go hand in hand". He answered me :"You always saying that everybody has their faults. "Exactly, but when you swear to do the right thing, you should not knowingly do that which is not right or convenient and practical, even though you know that it is improper or even immoral.
Children would usually say things to work in their favour. And my father used to drill us: "If you know you can't do it, do not promise to do it. People rely on promises". In the beginning as children that did not have any impact on us, but as life went on, I noticed that indeed people were grateful to those who kept their promise to them.
I was not the best-liked police officer, because I tried to be fair to everyone. This did not always sit well with the way certain (influential) persons wanted it to be. But I always remember one of the few sayings that my mother had impressed upon me when I decided to become a policeman. She said: "Anytime anything happens to anybody anywhere, some mother's belly hurts." And then ever so often, when she read something in the paper and I got home, she would give me that look, which I can see up to today.
Later on, she would ask me if I had anything I wanted to discuss. I would remind her that I leave police business in the police station. I told the late Mervin Scott at one time, that they should install some mirrors in strategic places in the Legislative Hall. His answer was "I do not know if they will give Williams a bon for that." I strongly believe in that because that was also instilled in me: "You should be able to look in the mirror and ask yourself questions , and give yourself honest answers.
If you break the rules for one (not in case of an emergency), you will eventually have to break the rules for all. Breaking rules is a form of "sparing the rod". And when you do that, you have to be prepared to sit on the blisters. I did not make up those sayings, they come from real experience in life. For instance, you cannot have your cake and eat it and one should not forget, "What goes around comes around". And one never knows what it will bring back around when it comes. Those old-time sayings were not made up, they came from experiencing one another. So, "If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas".
All of this is playing out consistently by us. Should we not attempt a change? In this day of modern technology and digital telecommunication, nothing hides and definitely not on merely sixteen square miles. .Why not just go out there and do the job, return home and relax with the family, so that you can go back to work with a clear and clean conscience. It worked for me!
Russell A. Simmons
